Council voted last November to begin meeting every other Tuesday, rather than every week, ostensibly because meeting agendas were so light.

But on Tuesday, council’s committee of the whole will meet at 10 a.m. to debate proposed changes to the solid waste management system – including the Otter Lake landfill – then move to a lengthy regional council meeting at 1 p.m. which includes a 6 p.m. public hearing on the Regional Plan five-year review.

“I felt (Tuesday’s) agenda … was too ambitious. And what I was told was, ‘You’re off for the summer, so we have to squeeze it all in,’” he said. “But if we were meeting like we used to, we would have met last Tuesday and addressed some of those issues.”

Johns said council would be more effective meeting on a weekly basis and using committee of the whole more often to replace some standing committees.

Other councillors such as Gloria McCluskey and Matt Whitman have also questioned the new meeting set up.

“I don’t think it’s efficiency, I think there’s other reasons why we’re meeting every other week,” Johns said. “Staff like to be able to control council, and when we’re in there every other week, they have a little bit more control.”

Coun. Steve Craig, who voted in favour of the change, said he’s found it useful to have a Tuesday that’s not committed to council meetings.

“I have…the opportunity to do other things in the community, or to engage in another committee, god forbid, or some other activity,” he said.

Craig said 12-hour days happened even when council was meeting on a weekly basis, and said he doesn’t find the long hours compromise the quality of debate.

“The topics can hold my attention… we’re talking various topics, which are all interesting and all engaging,” he said.

Johns said the meeting schedule is proposed by staff every year, and the bi-weekly schedule will be debated when it comes up again – but he wasn’t optimistic that change is in the cards.

“Some of council may not have had enough time to realize that we should go back to weekly meetings,” he said.